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Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology / Exhibits / Virtual Exhibits / Human Evolution through the Eyes of Dr. H. B. S. (Basil) Cooke

Human Evolution through the Eyes of Dr. H. B. S. (Basil) Cooke

Louis Leakey (upper left) at an excavation site at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (2009.022.149). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

Dr. Herbert Basil Sutton Cooke (1915-2018) was a very prominent geologist and palaeontologist who sought to shed light on human evolution. Dr. Cooke, who spent his retirement in White Rock, BC, donated his extensive image collection of archaeological sites and finds to the SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 2009. This exhibit explores his journey through Africa as he documents important milestones in the discovery of the extinct hominins (fossil species that are more closely related to us than they are to our closest living relatives, the chimpanzee and bonobo).

Louis and Mary Leakey

  • "Olduvai George" (approx. 1.7myo) and Cinderella skull fragments.

  • Mrs. Ples skull

  • Mary Leakey and excavation team

  • Louis Leakey 1965

  • Mary Leakey

  • Olduvai excavation

  • Mrs. Ples skull

  • Louis Leakey 1956

  • Mary Leakey

  • Taung child mandible

  • Taung child

  • Zinjanthropus site

Olduvai Gorge

  • Flint, Baker & Leakey on Red Bed III at Olduvai, undated (2009.016.057). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Olduvai Gorge (2009.022.146). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Mary (left) and Louis Leakey with visitors (2009.022.156). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Hominid mandible found at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (2009.022.143). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Hominid mandible found at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (2009.022.144). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • A view of the site at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (2009.022.145). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Aerial view of Olduvai Gorge (2009.022.160). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey and others at Olduvai Gorge (2009.022.168). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Excavation at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (2009.022.149). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

Hadar: Important Finds From Ethiopia 

  • A view of the site at Hadar, Ethiopia (2009.022.053). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • A view of the site at Hadar, Ethiopia (2009.022.62). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • A view of the site at Hadar, Ethiopia (2009.022.63). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

Lucy

  • Lucy’s skeleton (2009.022.058). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • A section of Lucy’s mandible and maxillary teeth (2009.022.057). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Lucy’s mandible (2009.022.059). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

Omo Region, Ethopia

  • Australopithecine teeth from the Omo region, Ethiopia (2009.022.248). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Australopithecine teeth from the Omo region, Ethiopia (2009.022.247). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Australopithecine teeth from the Omo region, Ethiopia (2009.022.249). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • View of the Omo Valley region as seen by Dr. H. S. B. Cooke from a plane (2009.022.279). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • An excavation site (L338) in the Omo region (2009.0222.250). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Australopithecine right parietal in situ at L338 (2009.022.250). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • Australopithecus cranium (2009.022.252). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

  • A tent set up at an excavation site in the Omo region, Ethiopia (2009.022.295). Photo by Dr. H.B.S. Cooke.

Further Reading

Avery, Margaret D.

    2018    H. Basil S. Cooke, FRSSAf (1015-2018). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 73 (2): 214-214.

Brain, C.K.

    2010    Basil Cooke’s Contributions to our Understanding of South African Cave Deposits and Fossil Fauna. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 61 (2): 33-34.

Cooke, H. B. S., C. Van Riet and L. H. Wells

    1941    Geology and Early Man. Nature 147: 45-49.

Dominguez-Rodrigo, Manuel and Bienvenido Martinez-Navarro

    2012    Taphonomic Analysis of the Early Pleistocene (2.4 Ma) Faunal Assemblage from A. L. 894 (Hadar, Ethiopia). Journal of Human Evolution 62 (3): 315-327.

Gaur, Rajan

    2015    Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey: The First Family of Paleoanthropology. Resonance 20 (8): 667-679.

Goldman-Neuman, Talia and Erella Hovers

    2012    Raw Material Selectivity in Late Pliocene Oldowan Sites in the Makaamitalu Basin, Hadar, Ethiopia. Journal of Human Evolution 62 (3): 353-366.

Howell, Clark

    1968    Omo Research Expedition. Nature 219: 567-572.

Kimbel, William H. and Lucas K. Delezene

    2009    “Lucy” Redux: A Review of Research on Australopithecus afarensis. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 52: 2-48.

Leakey, R. E. F.

    1969    Early Homo sapiens Remains from the Omo River Region of South-West Ethiopia: Faunal Remains from the Omo Valley. Nature 222: 1132-1133.

Shea, John J.

    2008    The Middle Stone Age Archaeology of the Lower Omo Valley Kibish Formation: Excavations, Lithic Assemblages, and Inferred Patterns of Early Homo sapiens   behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 55 (3): 448-85.

Silberman, Neil Asher (editor)

    2012    The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Oxford University Press, Oxfordshire.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

    2018    What Does it Mean to be Human? Electronic document,

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/australopithecus-afarensis, accessed 25 November, 2019.

© 2021 SFU Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, created by Megan Fisher. Photographs courtesy of Dr. Basil Cooke.